Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is trading down today following a New York Times report that Samsung is considering switching from Google to “Bing” as the default search engine on its smartphones.
Here’s what it means for Google
If, indeed, Samsung moves ahead with such a shift, it could mean about a $3.0 billion hit to revenue for Google.
Microsoft Bing has been gaining popularity in recent months after the tech behemoth signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with OpenAI and integrated ChatGPT technology into its search engine.
It’s not yet clear, though, if MSFT would agree to paying the same price for such a partnership with Samsung as Google does, particularly since search and advertising isn’t its primary source of revenue.
Nonetheless, today’s development raises concerns that Apple could eventually turn its back on Google as well, which would be a considerably bigger hit to the latter’s revenue.
Analyst reacts to the NY Times report
The said report reiterated that Google is racing to not just upgrade its existing search engine with new A.I. features but also build an all-new artificial intelligence-powered search engine.
But “Bard” – the company’s panic response to ChatGPT-enabled Bing has so far failed to woe investors (read more). To that end, Atlantic Equities’ analyst James Cordwell said on Monday:
Investors worry Google has become a lazy monopolist in search and the developments of the last couple of months have served as a wake-up call.
He sees costs related to competing with the AI-powered Microsoft Bing as another challenge for Google. Cordwell, nonetheless, has an “overweight” rating on the Google stock that’s up 18% for the year at writing.
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